When a teacher mentions reading sestinas, the class automatically groans. The students argue that sestinas are the most convoluted and least worthwhile form of poetry there is. However, sestinas actually have a purpose other than torturing ninth grade students. Whether it’s supporting a third person narrative like “Sestina” by Elizabeth Bishop or a first person reflection like “Sestina for Blackberry Season” by Ruth Levitan, the very form adds to the poetry. Sestinas use their form and repeating words to convey two stories in two different ways-- they convey the surface story through imagery, and they convey the underlying story and theme through symbolism, using the repeating words to link the two stories together.
In “Sestina” by Elizabeth…show more content… Thus, the stove in the literal sense is obvious -- it’s imagery for the kitchen, forcing the reader into the room with the grandmother and the child. However, the stove is also a metaphor for normalcy. The grandmother uses the stove as a source of comfort, busying herself instead of confronting the child: “But secretly, while the grandmother/ busies herself about the stove,/ the little moons fall down like tears”(31-33). The duality of the stove’s mundanity represents how to the outside world (and to the child), the scene would seem normal, but that’s only because the grandmother is making it so. Clearly, all of the repeating words in Elizabeth Bishop’s “Sestina” serve a purpose, implying that all repeating words in sestinas do…show more content… For example, in Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, the line, “Time to plant tears, says the almanac” brings together the picture of the grandmother and the child in the house with the story of the parent’s death(37). The word “tears” brings the reader back to the pain throughout the poem, reminding them that everything is going to change after the place where the story leaves off. However, the word “almanac” refers to the common household object found woven through the fabric of the poem. The almanac also goes back to the predicting property of such a book, adding onto the grandmother’s guilt and the imminent danger to the child’s innocence. Thus, in one line, just by using two repeating words, Bishop has encapsulated both stories of the poem and reminded the reader of what will happen after it’s
